Glove construction for providing comfort to the wearer



L. LANDAU Nov. 8, 1966 GLOVE CONSTRUCTION FOR PROVIDING COMFORT TO THE WEARER Filed Sept. 9, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 V Nov. 8, 1966 L. LANDAU 3,283,338

GLOVE CONSTRUCTION FOR PROVIDING COMFORT TO THE WEARER Filed Sept. 9, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. 8, 1966 1.. LANDAU Filed Sept. 9, 1965 GLOVE CONSTRUCTION FOR PROVIDING COMFORT 1'0 THE WEARER 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 L. LANDAU Nov. 8, 1966 GLOVE CONSTRUCTION FOR PROVIDING COMFORT TO THE WEARER 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Sept. 9, 1965 FIG.5.

FIG.6.

United States Patent 3,283,338 GLOVE CONSTRUCTION FOR PROVIDING COMFORT TO THE WEARER Lucian Landau, 3 Shakespeare Gardens, London, England Filed Sept. 9, 1965, Ser. No. 486,013 6 Claims. (Cl. 2161) usually by applying to the inside surface of the glove a coating of a suitable adhesive, followed by a coating of cotton flock. Such gloves slip on easily, but the moisture inside, which still develops and cannot escape, tends to weaken the bond between the adhesive and the cotton fibres, which then rub off rather easily, and remain on the skin when the gloves are taken off. Also, the gloves gradually become somewhat unpleasant to handle, when the flocked surface gets. dirty. Washing removes some of the flock and the remainder does not dry very rapidly.

Another reason for discomfort, particularly in gloves of a loose character used for work in the kitchen or in the garden, or industrial gloves, is that the flexing of the fingers when gripping an object causes those parts of the gloves adjacent to the knuckles to come into contact with the knuckles and to press against them. Further bending of the gloves, for example, to grasp an object, necessitates muscular force being exerted in stretching the gloves or bending them around the points of contact on the hand, such as the knuckle. Such extra muscular effort, though small for any one movement of the hand, has a cumulative efifect if the gloves are being worn for any length of time. The use of the phrase comfortable to the wearer therefore includes the conception of saving of muscular effort and therefore comfort after long periods of wear as well as the momentary comfort derived by the elimination of the pressing of the glove against local areas of the hand such as the knuckles.

According to the invention, a glove has formed on the inside surface thereof, on the palm side of the glove, inwardly extending projections located in lines running from the wrist towards the finger tips and arranged to contact the hand of the wearer and hold the general inside surface of the glove away from the hand, and thereby forming continuous air passages running from the wrist towards the finger tips. Preferably the projections on the fingers and thumb extend therealong from the knuckles only as far as the first joints.

According to a further feature of the invention, a glove has at least one zone on the knuckle side of the glove formed of material which has been treated, e.g., by crimping or corrugating it, whereby said zone can undergo changes in effective area during bending of the glove. Conveniently the backs of the fingers and of the knuckles constitute one zone, and the back of the thumb constitutes another zone.

Treating, e.g., by crimping or corrugating, includes moulding from flexible material into crimped or corrugated form, or deforming a sheet of material by introducing crimps, corrugations or dimples, the effect of which is to impart to the zone that has been treated the ability to concertina in or out in any desired direction whereby the effective area of the treated zone may be increased or decreased as desired.

lCC

Embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan of a rubber glove for the left hand, showing the knuckle side and two zones of corrugations,

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view of the glove of FIGURE 1, showing the inside surface of the palm side of the glove,

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view of one of the fingers of the glove, on the line IIIIII, FIGURE 1,

FIGURE -4 is a fragmentary perspective view of part of a finger of the glove, showing internal ridges and corrugations,

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary longitudinal section of the forefinger thereof, on the line V-V, FIGURE 1, showing the finger straight,

FIGURE 6 is a view corresponding to FIGURE 5, but showing the finger crooked, and

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 4, but of an alternative embodiment.

Referring to FIGURES 1 to 6 of the drawings, a glove 10 is formed of a single layer of rubber. There are two zones formed with corrugations, which are externally visible. The first zone extends across the knuckle indicated at 11, and continues along the backs of the four finger stalls 12, 13, 14, and 15. The second zone extends along the back of the thumb stall 16. For convenience the stalls will be referred to hereinafter by the part of the hand on which the stalls lie, namely as fingers and thumbs.

corrugations 17 are indicated in section in FIGURE 5, in which the forefinger 15 is shown in the straight position. It may be said here that the parts of the glove must perforce be identified by the parts of the human hand on which they lie. Thus, a glove has no knuckles, but the area 11 indicated in FIGURE 1 is identified as the knuckles of the glove since it overlies the knuckles of the hand when the glove is worn. This is not apparent in FIGURE 5, but it becomes apparent in FIG- URE 6, where the portion 11 corresponds with the knuckle of the hand, the portion 18 corresponds with the middle joint of the forefinger, and the portion 19 corresponds with the end joint of the forefinger adjacent to the fingernail. When the finger is crooked, the material of the glove stretches over the joints, the corrugations 17 becoming straightened and so extending and increasing the effective a ea of the glove at the zones where bending of the human hand takes place. Intermediate the joints, some of the corrugations 17 may not become straightened and these are indicated in FIGURE 6.

The inside surface of the palm side of the glove 10 will be seen in FIGURE 2. Longitudinal ridges 20, 21 are moulded during the formation of the glove, by providing the former with corresponding depressions. The ridges consist of two series of interrupted ridges 20 and 21, ridges of one series being coaxial and spaced apart in the longitudinal sense, and the ridges of the other series being interdigitated therewith, to the extent that each ridge 21 lies alongside the space between adjacent ridges 20, and vice versa. While this exact arrangement is in no way critical, it provides channels, indicated by the broken lines 23 in FIGURES 2, 3 and 4, which extend along the interior of the glove from fingers to wrist between the inside surface of the palm side and the hand of the wearer. Such channels may be achieved by other arrangements of projections. It is, however, essential that whatever projections are employed provide continuous air passages between the glove and the hand.

The ridges 20, 21 are not provided at the tips of the fingers. Areas indicated at 24, lying between the first joint of the finger or thumb and the tip thereof are left fit of the invention will not be obtained, but with a correctly fitting glove it should be possible for the hand to be bent into a clenched position with substantially no undue tensioning of the material over the local areas such as 11, 18 and 19 where bending takes place.

As to the meaning of correct fitting, it is generally recommended that ordinary rubber gloves are chosen to be a size larger than that normally used by the wearer for leather or fabric gloves. With gloves according to the invention, however, this step-up in size becomes unnormal size.

necessary, and the correct fitting for the wearer is the surgical gloves to be snugly fitting, but whose hands become rapidly tired, as they are held so much in the clenched position. Surgical gloves according to the invention are both correct fitting and comfortable.

The corrugations indicated in FIGURE '1 lie with their directions at approximately 30 to the longitudinal axes of the fingers.

This is a preferable configuration adopted for ease of manufacture in the gloves, since 'when they are made by dipping, this aflords good flow of the material.

The sectional configuration of the corrugations indicated in FIGURES 5 and 6 is purely diagrammatic and may be varied as desired for any especial purpose. if a very snug fitting glove is required, the corrugations Thus,

may be more closely spaced so as to resemble the convolutions of a tightly collapsed bellows, so that ample increase of effective area atthe points indicated at 11, 18, and 19 in FIGURE 6 is obtainable.

' As an example, in an industrial glove as shown in FIG- URE 1, the length of the corrugated zone between the points A and B shown in FIGURE 1 may be regarded as approximate to 13 centimetres. When the fist is clenched, and the fingers are bent, as shown in FIGURE 6, this distance A to B will have increased to about 15.1 centimetres; The configuration of the corrugations may therefore be arranged to allow an increase in effective area over the joints and knuckles corresponding to an increase of at least 2.1 centimetres in the distance A to B. Whereas in an ordinary glove the material bears on the knuckles to a considerable extent when the hand is clenched, the corrugated zones of the glove according to the invention do not exert appreciably greater pressure when the hand is bent than when it is fiat, and therefore the sense-of This advantageous feature of the invention I is of especial value to wearers such as surgeons, who like chafing and constriction experienced with ordinary gloves is avoided.

When the wearers hand in a glove accordingto the invention lies flat, with the fingers outstretched, the cor-' When the fingers At the same time, the clenching and unclenching of the fingers causes a pumping action to be exerted through the air passages 23. With the hand clenched, there is relatively little air in the glove; when it is unclenched, air is drawn in at the wrist, and passes along the passages 23. When the hand is again clenched, the air is expelled. So considerable, indeed, is this pumping action that the air can be heard as it is being expelled ,or drawn in. Adequate ventilation is therefore provided, and clamminess is obviated.

FIGURE 7 shows an alternative embodiment in which, instead of interrupted ridges, there are provided continuous ridges 25 between which are continuous air passages 23 as before.

Instead of rubber or rubber-like materials, other flexi: ble materials such as polyvinyl chloride may be employed. There may be corrugations parallelwith the direction of the fingers, e.g., across the back of the hand near the wrist. Dimples and other forms of local deformation may be employed to give the same effect of stretching by increasing the effective area without the material in fact being stretched in the sense that an ordinary rubber glove would be stretched.

I claim:

1. A glove having a knuckle side, a palm side, a wrist, four finger stalls, and one thumb stall, said stalls being formed with tips, said glove having, on the inside surface of the palm side, inwardly extending projections located in lines running from the wrist in the direction of, the finger stall tips and arranged to contact the hand of the wearer and hold the inside surface of the glove away from the hand, said projections forming continuous air passages running from the wrist in the direction of the finger stall tips, a zone on the knuckle side of the glove being formed with corrugations extending across the glove at.

an angle greater than 30 with respect to the axis of said finger stalls, said corrugations enabling said zone to increase in effective area during bending of the glove.

2. A glove as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the projections is in the form of a continuous ridge.

3. A glove as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the projections is in the form of an interrupted ridge 4. A glove as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said projections extend into the finger stalls and thumb stall but stop just short of the said tips in said stalls.

5. A glove as claimed in claim 4 wherein the said projections are each in the formof a continuous ridge.

6. A glove as claimed in claim 4 wherein the said projections are each in the form of an interrupted ridge.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

FRANK J. COHEN, Examiner.

G. V. LARKIN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A GLOVE HAVING A KNUCKLE SIDE, A PALM SIDE, A WRIST, FOUR FINGER STALLS, AND ONE THUMB STALL, SAID STALLS BEING FORMED WITH TIPS, SAID GLOVE HAVING, ON THE INSIDE SURFACE OF THE PALM SIDE, INWARDLY EXTENDING PROJECTIONS LOCATED IN LINES RUNNING FROM THE WRIST IN THE DIRECTION OF THE FINGER STALL TIPS AND ARRANGED TO CONTACT THE HAND OF THE WEARER AND HOLD THE INSIDE SURFACE OF THE GLOVE AWAY FROM THE HAND, SAID PROJECTIONS FORMING CONTINUOUS AIR PASSAGES RUNNING FROM THE WRIST IN THE DIRECTION OF THE FINGER STALL TIPS, A ZONE ON THE KNUCKLE SIDES OF THE GLOVE BEING FORMED WITH CORRUGATIONS EXTENDING ACROSS THE GLOVE AT AN ANGLE GREATER THAN 30* WITH RESPECT TO THE AXIS OF SAID FINGER STALLS, SAID CORRUGATIONS ENABLING SAID ZONE TO INCREASE IN EFFECTIVE AREA DURING BENDING OF THE GLOVE. 